A Strong Weekend for FC Dallas & North Texas Offers Hope
Both Frisco teams bounced back with results this past weekend at the right time. Is there hope?
With high school football season ramping up and my son’s daily practice schedule messing up my routine (oh, plus the full-time gig), Afterburn was quiet last week.
And we were quiet for good reason - FC Dallas has consistently disappointed just as fans have felt their hopes growing. The last home loss, that setback against NYCFC in Frisco, felt like another gut punch for fans who keep showing up and expecting this team to turn things around. Not the season anyone of us have wanted.
You could argue that North Texas SC, although in stronger form for most of the season, have also fallen short of expectations. Since May, the young squad has been consistently inconsistent, and every time they seem to put something together, a result like last week’s against Color Rapids 2 exposes their glaring weaknesses. It’s not been an exhilarating season.
But, to their credit, the front office have realized some of their errors. They’ve not been afraid to shed players who aren’t contributing or received the right kind of price. Antonio Carrera was transferred to Tigres to continue his development. Marco Farfan also was a surprise transfer for a decent outlay of cash, not the move any of us expected. The best move was selling Lucho Acosta to Fluminense, a welcome departure for a player who just did not work in Frisco.
The club went out and got a new backup goalkeeper, someone they must see value in who provides competition to Michael Collodi, as well as signing Josh Torquato and Sam Sarver to first team deals. Christian Cappis, former academy prospect, has returned home to bolster the midfield. Deedson, an attacking winger who features regularly for Haiti, made his first appearance in an FC Dallas kit. New faces, new culture, new chapter.
Are their more moves to be expected? Maybe. Hopefully. But at least for now, there is some weight lifted on this team.
In fact, I love how Matt Doyle put it in his Armchair Analyst piece - “Dallas looked good – like they were playing without a 1,000-pound weight on their shoulders.” That weight is the departure of Lucho Acosta who brought his ego and flashes of MVP-quality skills but also a lack of leadership, a sour locker room presence, and an inability to complete forward passes. Now that he is gone, the team can buy in to Quill’s desire for a true blue collar kind of tactic and fight, an FC Dallas squad made up of DAWGS.
On Saturday night, against the visiting Portland Timbers (who also sold a player to Fluminense - maybe not willingly), FC Dallas found a big win. The performance was one of the better in a while. The Burn had 1.6 xG compared to just .6 xG for Portland, and they put away their chances. Petar Musa is in fine form and finds ways to just score. Lalas Abubakar, a guy my son reminded me I have been pretty negative about this season, lasered in a header. Michael Collodi meanwhile started in goal for an injured Maarten Paes and continued to look the part of a legit MLS talent.
Overall, this was a strong team performance, and if it can hold, a sign that there is plenty of fight left in the squad ahead of a favorable schedule to end the season.
North Texas, wanting to put the disappointing loss against the Rapids 2 behind them, traveled down to Austin, and for 89+ minutes, looked really good. They were scrappy. Caleb Swann got his first professional goal. JT Harms showed well in goal again. Pedrinho, coming down from the first team, outclassed most everybody with his play. A late goal unfortunately cost the team the win, but the subsequent shootout victory offered a decent consolation prize.
All in all, this young team needed this result, and to find a way to win without Sam Sarver, their talisman, the confidence has to be rising. Hopefully, it leads to more strong play over their final run.
So, yes, there is reason to hope again for FC Dallas fans. Maybe another new face is on the way. Maybe the favorable schedules puts playoff soccer back on the menu. Of course, there is a lot of work for FCD and NTSC to do to get there, but we’ll be here for the whole ride.
See you tonight as we return for the Afterburn Soccer Live Show at 8 PM CST on YouTube.